Representation of India in British Literature

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· Name: Abulhasan H. Aabedi

             

· Roll no: 01

· Topic: Representation of India in British Literature

· Paper no.9 Modernists Literature

· Class: Semester 03

· Enrollment no.:2069108420180001

· Batch: 2017~19

·      Words:- 1487

· Submitted to Department of English MK Bhavnagar University.

·      Representation of India in Modern British Literature:

Introduction: 

                   Throughout the Ages, India is very significant in British literature from various aspects. There are many British writers who mentioned India in their works like Christopher Marlowe Talked about India, in the Dr. Faustus, he talked about wealthy India, in the monologue of Faustus we can find wealthy India, gold and pearls during Mughal dynasty around 16^th century. Similarly, John Donne also talked about the spices of India in his poetry. So, that time India known for its materialistic power and in Modern Era, when India was colonized by British that time British writers wrote on the Indian Philosophy like in “The Waste Land” T.S. Eliot talked about the Upnishada and Shanti mantra. Rudyard Kipling also shows us real India in his notable work “Kim.” In addition, E.M. Forster and Hermanne Hesse also wrote on India. We can find Buddhist philosophy in the novel “Siddhartha” by Hermanne Hesse whereas Forster also wrote as similar to Kim in his prominent work “ A passage to India” Moreover, many other writers like Virginia Woolf mentioned India in different ways

Here, we will see the representation of India in following major works of Modern British Literature.

·      “The Waste Land”

·      “Kim”

·      “A passage to India”

·      “Siddhartha”

·      “The Waste Land”:-

                            The waste land is considered master piece of T. S. Eliot. In five sections, he deal with various themes of war, trauma, disillusionment, sexual perversion and death, illuminating the devastating after effects of World War 2. We can see that in first four sections of the poem, T. S. Eliot shows us devastated Europe by World War and sexuality. But at the end of poem in the last section, T. S. Eliot talks about India Philosophy, spiritual thoughts and Peace.

Impact of upnishada on The Waste Land:-

T. S. Eliot was highly influenced by Indian philosophy. He makes undeniable appeal to the thunder of the “Brihdarankya Upnishad” is the final portion of The Waste Land. Eliot draws on the traditional interpretation of “What thunder says”, as taken from Upnishad. According to these fables, the thunder is ‘Gives’. ‘Sympathizes’ and ‘control’ through its speech. Eliot launches into a meditation on each of these aspects of the thunder’s power.

Eliot also used three “Da” taken from Hindu mythology. The Gods interpret this three as “Damyata” or “control”, the humans as “Datta”, or “give”, and the demons as “Dayadhvam”, or “Sympathizers”. The story end with the Creator, represented as the second thunder, repeating “da, da, da” as reminder to practice self control, giving and compassion. In the “Waste Land” Eliot modifies this story following each interpretation with a passage in which the protagonist thinks about how the world, and the ideas it represents, relates to his life. Many critics interpret these responses in terms of human love and connection, and while this reading relates to other sections of the poem that depict sterile or uncommunicative relationship, it does not address the reason why Eliot would choose to use a Hindu story to illustrate these states. At last, T.S. Eliot talks about the peace through Indian Shanti Mantra.

·      “Siddhartha”:-

                             “Siddhartha” is a novel by Nobel laureate Hermann Hesse that deals with the spiritual Journey of self discovery of a man named Siddhartha during the time of Gautama Buddha. Hermann Hesse didn’t visit India but he visited neighboring country like Srilanka and Indonesia. He got information about the Indian philosophy from his parents. The Novel “Siddhartha” is all about the search for self, if we see the meaning of Siddhartha: Siddh means achieved and Artha means search for, which together means, he who found the meaning of existence. The themes of the novel are about the search for self like:

·      Search for spiritual Enlightenment

·      Inner vs Exterior Guidance

·      The wisdom of Indirection

So, in this novel we can find the spirituality and philosophy of India through Buddhism. Hermann Hesse wants to say that the world is about the searching for self not about material things, Nirvana is a central thought of the novel.

·      Kim:-

              “Kim” is a novel by Nobel Prize winning British writer Rudyard Kipling. The novel is about the journey of Rudyard Kipling across India. This work we can say a Diaspora because Rudyard Kipling was working in British government as a spy or journalist after many years he went to England and wrote this novel as a remembering his past in India. The present story is about an orphan boy Kim and vivid pictures of India.

India occupies a central position in Kipling’s writing. India has a special place in his heart as he had spent his impressionable years of childhood and formative years of his young age in India. Therefore the main character in his work is India. He had seen India with her many faces in all her beauty power and truth. Kipling possessed insatiable curiosity.

Rudyard Kipling portrayed vivid pictures of India for instance He shows Different religions and culture of India that India is a land of vivid religions and cultures. Moreover, he also talks about the superstitions in cultures, condition of women in patriarchal India. Besides these, Kipling also shows us Indian philosophy through Teshoo Lama and he has become a disciple of Teshoo lama because he liked the philosophy of India. The present novel also portrayed Imperialism of British. Somehow, this novel is about the remembering of British Raj for Kim because through this novel Rudyard Kipling rewind his days in India. In this way Kim portrayed Vivid India pictures and real India like the bazaar, road, cultures, religions, philosophy of India we can find in this novel.

·      “A Passage to India”:-

                                       A Passage to India (1924) is a novel by English author E. M. Forster set against the backdrop of the British Raj and the Indian Independence movement in the 1920s. The present novel divided in three parts:

·      Mosque

·      Cave

·      Temple

So, here each part portrayed different India like Islam through Mosque, Hinduism through Temple and Symbolic India through Marabar cave. E.M. Forster visited India hence he has succeeded in portraying real India. This novel is also very crucial about the friendship between Muslim and British through the characters of Dr. Aziz and Mr. Fielding. Here, Forster portrayed Muslim as friend of Western while portrayel of Hinduism is chaotic like Marabar cave. And we can also find the conflict between Muslim and Hindu in the month of Muharram. So, we can say that Forster deeply studied India through cultural and religious aspects. This story is about Indian independence movement of 1920s so we can see the nationalism in Dr. Aziz characters that he does not want British Raj in India hence he always against British throughout the novel while Godbole represents real Hinduism through his character.

·      Portrayal of Literary India and real India:

As per these all prominent works of British literature, we find different faces of India. As we discussed earlier that India is very significant in British literature in one or in another way. Generally, we can find Indian philosophy in these works but those who are visited India like Rudyard Kipling and E. M. Forster writes about real India or we can say they portrayed vivid pictures of India because they both have seen and feel India by their visits of India. Whereas, T. S. Eliot and Hermann Hesse wrote about Indian philosophy, Indian spirituality, ideas of peace, search for self enlightenment rather than materials things. So, we see that those who did not visit India praised India while those who visited India portrayed the reality of India in which we find various cultures, communal riots, superstition, so on. So, we can say that literary India and real India is very different in these all works.

·      Conclusion:

                             To wind up, We can say that all the writers portrayed India in different way. Some have seen India from the philosophical way and some are studied India through visit and wrote the reality of India. These all works are very significant for India because we can see Indian thoughts in different way. Most of writers praised India so some may have question like why India do not see as its philosophy, means Indian philosophy talking about peace and brotherhood then why today’s India do not follow their own philosophy? Why people are killing in the name of religion.

Works Cited

Gausvami, Surbhi. Indian reading in the waste land. 17 october 2017. 2 november 2018 <http://surbhigausvami22.blogspot.com/2017/10/name-gausvami-surbhi-a.html>.

Singh, Amarjeet. (n.d.).

—. "Representation of Indian history in rudyard Kipling's Kim." International journal of English language, literature and humanities (2016): 5.